The Health Bill Explained at Last

In a June 21 survey of the public’s response to the health care reform bill passed by Congress in March of this year, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that while 48 percent of those polled were favorable to the bill, 42 percent were confused about it and 41 percent were opposed—a number that has been even higher in other polls.

No wonder. Republicans have sought to make health care reform Barack Obama’s “Waterloo,” as South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint put it in July 2009, by scaring the public. Ominous and utterly false warnings about “death panels,” a government “takeover” of American medicine, and “pulling the plug on grandma” followed. With Republicans hoping to use their opposition to the bill to gain seats in this fall’s midterm elections, there is little sign that such attacks will stop.

The irony is that for all the apocalyptic rhetoric, the new health reform law is anything but radical. In fact, it closely resembles the 2006 reform in Massachusetts supported by then- governor Republican Mitt Romney.

The bill, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, begins to take effect this year but many of its provisions will be carried out during the coming decade. As of now, a majority of working-age adults and their children—some 157 million people—obtain private health insurance through their employers, while virtually all Americans over age sixty-five, as well as younger adults with permanent disabilities, are covered by Medicare. Low-income Americans who fit certain demographic categories, such as pregnant women and children, have access to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). (These two government insurance programs cover nearly one third of all US children.) Still others depend on a loose health care safety net, including community health centers that provide subsidized care, as well as on hospital emergency rooms that must by law see all patients, which of course doesn’t mean they will get timely or adequate care.

There are sizable gaps in US health insurance coverage. Some 46 million persons—over 16 percent of the population—have no health insurance. Millions of others are underinsured, with policies that do not provide adequate coverage for costly care. A high percentage of workers in small businesses are not covered by their employers and find purchasing their own insurance prohibitively expensive. Those with preexisting conditions like diabetes or asthma face particularly serious obstacles since insurers vary premium rates by health status and regularly deny coverage to those they regard as expensive risks.

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